Afghan tribal elders hold more talks today seeking a political settlement of a nine-year war, but hopes of progress slipped further after Taliban militants attacked the peace gathering with rockets and gunfire.
President Hamid Karzai, who launched the traditional jirga as the rockets fell nearby, is hoping to secure national support for his plans to seek reconciliation with the Taliban ahead of a planned US military withdrawal from 2011.
But even if he won the backing of 1,500 delegates drawn from around the battle-scarred nation, it would amount to little more than symbolic support, since the Taliban have vowed to press on with their campaign - at its most intense since 2001 - until all foreign troops leave.
The delegates, a fifth of whom are meant to be women, are gathered in a giant tent in Kabul Polytechnic University in the west of the capital where, over large amounts of Afghan tea, they will discuss the way forward to break the impoverished nation's cycle of violence.
Yesterday, the meeting which continued despite the Taliban attack, divided into 28 smaller groups to debate Mr Karzai's peace proposals and report back to former president Burnhanuddin Rabani, the appointed jirga chairman.
The proposals include reintegration of Taliban foot soldiers to society through jobs and cash incentives, and reconciliation with the senior figures, offering them asylum in a Muslim country and striking their names off a UN blacklist.
The thorny issue of a timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces from the country may also come up, delegates said, even though Mr Karzai is known to be opposed to any such debate at this stage.
Reuters